many of the mistakes,
pitfalls, and arrogance of marketers located
in stage 1.
Yet, it is only in stages 3 and 4 that
integration moves beyond juxtaposition
of promotional mix elements, or use of
market research, for in these latter stages
businesses have to invest significant resource
in building segmented databases
and organizational restructuring to become
customer-focused and customerdriven.
Only if communication resources
are invested and measured against actual
customer behavior can financial returns
be compiled. Thus stages 3 and 4 are a
Only strategically oriented integrated brand communications
can help businesses move forward in the highly
competitive world of the 21st century.
THE EMERGENCE OF IMC
March 2004 JOURNAL OF ADVERTISING RESEARCH 27
movement from attitudinal measurement
to behavioral measurement. And only
when we move into stage 4, do we arrive
at a position that resembles integrated marketing.
The problem is that integrated marketing
may be based on stage 1 (not stage
4) foundations.
The real weakness of IMC is the very
weakness of firms to invest resources in
the marketing and communication process.
If that investment is not made, then
businesses will find themselves anchored
at the dock of stage 1 or stage 2. Indeed,
IMC will have made a contribution, but it
is not one of a strategic nature. It is instead
tactical. And, yet, communication has to
move from tactical partner to strategic
integrator. Only strategically oriented integrated
brand communications can help
businesses move forward in the highly
competitive world of the 21st century.
The current location of IMC in a global
sense is at stage 1 or stage 2 of the IMC
process. Yet stage 1 is a body blow to true
integration and indeed to the discipline of
marketing itself. Such a location cannot
represent any more than a form of marketing
communication myopia. Stage 2 is
an improvement. Stages 3 and 4 represent
organizational investment and real organizational
change. But, if a business decides
to jump from stage 1 to integrated
marketing (the new buzz word on the
marketing block), then integrated marketing
is integrated from an organizational
but not from a customer or consumer
perspective. The early promise of IMC
will have faded into yet another form of
rhetoric (see Kitchen, 2003). Only if businesses
follow through with sustained investment
will IMC continue upward in
terms of growth.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
This article has considered and critiqued
the IMC developmental process, its impact
on marketing communications, indicated
barriers to its further development,
and located IMC in terms of where it is
now, and where it likely to go in the
future. Undoubtedly, a broad awareness
of the IMC concept has been created and
its diffusion worldwide is evident. Such
development and diffusion is dependent
upon underlying environmental factors
that show evidence of increased acceleration
in the 21st century, which augers
well for the future development of IMC
and its related construct—integrated
marketing.
And, yet, at the same time, IMC has
provoked intense, diverse discussion and
criticism. While we cannot return to the
crucible of forces from which IMC emerged
in the late 1980s, plainly these forces are
no longer app
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